Blue bins to roll out in Sparwood ahead of April recycling launch

Sparwood residents will start receiving their new curbside recycling bins next week, with the community wide programme set to officially begin the week of April 6.

Emily Bassett, presenting on behalf of Startemup, gave council a detailed update on the rollout during the March 3 regular meeting, saying the long anticipated service is now close to launch.

“The week of April 6 is the first official week,” Bassett told council. “It is going to be the same day as your current garbage collection.”

She said recycling would be picked up every other week, alternating with garbage collection, and the blue bins would be distributed during March. Councillor Steve Kallies later added that rollout of the containers would begin March 9 and continue over about three weeks.

Bassett said the new curbside programme is intended for residential properties, including trailer parks, but not for multifamily complexes with more than four units that already use shared recycling systems.

She said residents would receive the larger 240 litre blue bins, matching the size of the community’s larger garbage carts.

“We also are getting the 240 [litre] blue [bins], which is the big bin,” Bassett said. “So that’s the same size as your big garbage bin.”

Under the new system, materials currently accepted in the transfer station’s central green bins will now be eligible for curbside pickup. That includes paper, cardboard, mixed containers and clean metal cans. Materials still destined for the transfer station include glass, flexible plastics, Styrofoam and other items that can damage or jam equipment.

Bassett said contamination remains Recycle BC’s biggest concern.

“So if you can see physical food on it, and you cannot get it off, it cannot be recycled,” she said. “We say when in doubt, keep it out.”

She warned that putting the wrong material into the bin could create safety hazards, cause equipment damage and contaminate an entire load.

“The biggest thing is that recycling can get contaminated, the whole truck can get contaminated, and it just ruins everything,” Bassett said.

Another major message from the presentation was that recyclables should not be bagged before being placed in the blue carts.

“You’re actually not going to put a plastic bag in your recycling bin,” Bassett said. “We don’t want those plastic bags in at all, definitely not full of garbage, but not even full of recycling.”

The district and its partners have been carrying out public outreach through flyers, website updates, direct engagement booths and school programming. Bassett said booths had been set up at the high school, the mall, the rec centre and Winterfest, with more public outreach planned through March.

Bassett said community involvement also includes school-based contests.

“We have been talking directly with the school principals about doing a colouring contest in the elementary school,” she said. “We’ve got a video contest going right now for the older kids or students.”

She said the goal is to build awareness through children and families while making the transition easier for residents.

Among the most common positive comments she heard were that the service was “long time coming,” that residents were happy to reduce trips to the transfer station and that many were pleased the larger bins were being used.

The biggest concern raised by residents was the shift to biweekly garbage pickup, especially in summer and in areas where wildlife may get into waste. Bassett said some households with larger families also worried about whether they would have enough room in their garbage bins.

Council was broadly supportive of the rollout.

Councillor Steve Kallies called it a close second to the evening’s student capstone presentations and said he was glad to finally see the programme arrive after years of work.

Mayor David Wilks said the district had been “bugging Recycle BC for a long, long time” and warned residents not to start filling their blue bins too early, since they will not be emptied until the April launch.

For now, he said, people still need to use the transfer station until collection officially starts, with curbside recycling expected to make it easier for many residents to sort and dispose of their materials once the new system is fully in place.